"
The day came for sailing, and as the sun rose, hundreds of brown feet
were running to the beach, children dancing with excitement, women
saying "Goodbye" to their husbands--men, who for the first time in
all their lives were to leave their tiny islet for the wonderful world
beyond the ocean.
So two hundred of them went on board. The sails were hoisted and they
went away never to return; sailed away not to learn of Jesus, but to
the sting of the lash and the shattering bullet, the bondage of the
plantations, and to death at the hands of those merciless beasts of
prey, the Peruvian slavers.
* * * * *
Years passed and a little fifty-ton trading vessel came to anchor
outside the reef. One man and then another and another got down into
the little boat and pulled for the shore. Elikana had returned. The
women and children ran down to meet him--but few men were there, for
nearly all had gone.
"Where is this one? Where is the other?" cried Elikana, with sad face
as he looked around on them.
"Gone, gone," came the answer; "carried away by the man-stealing
ships."
Elikana turned to the white missionary who had come with him, to ask
what they could do.
"We will leave Joane and his wife here," replied Mr.
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